The saddest moments in sitcom history...

[Guest Zack Malibu]

The last episode of California Dreams:

 

The whole gang is preparing to go off to college, and be seperated from each other. Jake believes that if he can get the band signed to deal, no one will have to worry about college. A record executive catches the band playing on the pier, and offers a deal, but with one catch...he only wants Jake. Jake refuses to take the offer, wanting to keep the band back together. The executive finally gives in and offers the whole band a deal, but they reject it, feeling that they need to go on and see what else is out there. This angers Jake, but we find out that he's scared because the band is everything to him, and now he's losing it all. The band plays one final gig at the pier, when everyone starts crying as they play the final song. Each member of the gang says goodbye, and it comes down to Jake and Sly at the end. The two guys act macho for a minute, but give in and hug each other, with Sly turning back as he walks off and saying "Make me proud." Jake is the last one standing and the show goes off the air.

 

Yes, I got emotional during this episode. Not only was one of my favorite shows of all time ending, but it was done in a situation that everyone faces sooner or later:moving on, life after high school, and growing up in general. We're led to believe that great things await each individual, but it wasn't a happy ending as far as the band as a unit was concerned, and that made it more sad.

[Guest oldschoolwrestling]

If I can go old school for a minute:

 

One of the season finale's for "Good Times". Father James was out of town getting a better job. The family was going to be getting out of the ghetto. They're having a celebration with all the family and friends. Then they receive word that James had been killed in a car accident. Quite the swerve back in the day.

[Guest EQ]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer...when she finds her mom dead, that's just too hard to watch.

GOD DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm collecting the series on DVD and haven't seen it yet.

 

BUFFY IS NOT A SITCOM!

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

Good call on the "My Name is Alex" episode. I completely forgot about that one.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer...when she finds her mom dead, that's just too hard to watch.

GOD DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm collecting the series on DVD and haven't seen it yet.

 

BUFFY IS NOT A SITCOM!

Sorry, posted that without thinking...and it's a thread of spoilers for Christ sake!

[Guest Vern Gagne]

If I can go old school for a minute:

 

One of the season finale's for "Good Times". Father James was out of town getting a better job. The family was going to be getting out of the ghetto. They're having a celebration with all the family and friends. Then they receive word that James had been killed in a car accident. Quite the swerve back in the day.

I still remember the reaction from the Pimp in the background.

 

 

Mash should of ended after Col. Blake died.

 

 

The biggest tear jerker for me was the Fonz going blind.

[Guest EQ]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer...when she finds her mom dead, that's just too hard to watch.

GOD DAMMIT!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm collecting the series on DVD and haven't seen it yet.

 

BUFFY IS NOT A SITCOM!

Sorry, posted that without thinking...and it's a thread of spoilers for Christ sake!

Yeah, but I don't really care too much about sitcom storylines.

 

=P

[Guest Zack Malibu]

The biggest tear jerker for me was the Fonz going blind.

Fonzie went blind?

 

I watched Happy Days as a kid, but I've obviously missed a lot of eps, and I haven't been motivated to tape them off TVLand yet. When did this happen? Was it towards the end with Ted McGinley and Crystal Bernard on the show as opposed to the original cast?

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

- The oil spill episode of Saved by The Bell

I remember being real emotional during that Episode...

 

They killed Becky! Bastards!

[Guest Zack Malibu]

- The oil spill episode of Saved by The Bell

I remember being real emotional during that Episode...

 

They killed Becky! Bastards!

Oh my.

 

I missed the SBTB mention in this thread.

 

I must be slipping!

 

Most emotional moment on SBTB was when Zack and Kelly broke up because he realized she cheated on him. I remember being angry and sad at the same time when that happened.

 

The oil spill episode I agree with as well.

[The Dames 0]

Most emotional moment on SBTB was when Zack and Kelly broke up because he realized she cheated on him. I remember being angry and sad at the same time when that happened.

 

The oil spill episode I agree with as well.

OH MAN! I remember that! I was like "DAMN, he worked so hard to get her too". I always remember Jessie and Slater singing that damn song while they were breaking up outside.

 

Refresh my memory on the oil spill episode.

 

Dames

[Guest Zack Malibu]

Refresh my memory on the oil spill episode.

 

Dames

The oil spill episode was when they struck oil on the football field. Zack had found a duck outside of the school, and began caring for it. Turns out the duck was "Becky", whom Mr. Belding had been caring for and named Becky after his wife. When the oil tycoon came to Bayside and they began drilling, Becky was killed after being covered in oil during the drilling. Everyone had been so excited about the money they could get, but opted instead to cease the drilling after that. If you watch the beginning of SBTB, and they show the clip of the whole gang high-fiving each other, it's from that episode, after they scared the oil tycoon off.

[Guest raptor]

Scrubs can usually beak me down, but the moment that got me the most was when they revealed that Brendan Fraser's character had cancer. He went into remission the next episode, but the first ep was heart breaking.

 

Oh, and for the guy who's watching Buffy on DVD, don't read this.

 

The episode Fool For Love (Spike's Origin episode) is the saddest Buffy, IMO. The things that usually get to me emotionally are the ones that deal with losing love, and that's whats at the heart of this episode. It also beautifully displays the deconstruction of a heroic human into a villain. Just great emotional television.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

The final episode of The Young Ones, entitled "Summer Holiday." The boys have managed to sucessfully rob a bank, become rich, and are able to escape the dreariness of their lives. Of course, on their way to paradise, they all die in a bus explosion.

 

Wait...that wasn't sad. It was friggin' hilarious!

I thought it was sad, but as I said earlier, every finale is sad for me of every series, which people forgot to notice me saying when I said the Seinfeld finale was sad.

 

What was actually funny about it was the bus exploding right after they all say "Whew, that was close!"

[Guest RevEvil]

I don't know if Futurama counts, but there have been a couple.

[Guest The Tino Standard]

I've seen the Wonder Years finale four or five times and I still can't get through it without tearing up. That show hit home so many times, it was just unbelievable. I think there were a few episodes in there that were sad. Winnie moving out of the neighborhood was one. The one where Kevin and Winnie are on the field trip at the space museum and she leaves him for the guy from the other school is a stomach punch.

 

And for the record, while I didn't find the Seinfeld finale sad, I've begun to think that that episode gets slammed more than it deserves. Yeah, I didn't like a clip show as a finale, but it was pretty cool that they could get pretty much every single 'that guy' that was ever in the series to make a cameo in the finale. Another thing that I like about it was that there are a TON of subtle refrences to past episodes there. I pick up a new one every time I watch.

[Guest bob_barron]

Agreed.

 

The Seinfeld finale wasn't an A+ best episode ever but it was still a good show with some minor problems. It just got overhyped to hell and had to meet impossible expectations

[Guest Vyce]

Oh, and for the guy who's watching Buffy on DVD, don't read this.

 

The episode Fool For Love (Spike's Origin episode) is the saddest Buffy, IMO. The things that usually get to me emotionally are the ones that deal with losing love, and that's whats at the heart of this episode. It also beautifully displays the deconstruction of a heroic human into a villain. Just great emotional television.

Agreed. That's one of my favorite Buffy episodes of all time. Largely because I'm a Spike fan, but it's a great episode any way you look at it.

 

That episode, more so than any other, is particularly why I believe that Spike is the best character on that show. There is so much to the character, and he's such a goddamn tragic hero, that he just blows everyone else away IMO.

 

*****

 

Oh, about Futurama - I've never seen an episode of it that has made me cry, but they did kind of get good and dramatic in the episode where Fry thinks his brother stole his lucky clover-leaf and became a success, when in reality his brother gave the leaf to his son - whom he named Fry, in loving memory to his missing brother, and it was the nephew Fry who went on to do his lost uncle proud. A touching episode for such a silly show.

[Guest Redhawk]

The one episode of Fresh Prince that get's to me every single time is the one where Wills father shows up, but ends up leaving him at the end like he always does. Uncle Phil and Will are left alone in the room, with Will get enormously pissed off at what his father has done to him pretending to angry though he's crushed. He then breaks down and hugs Uncle Phil while repeating "How come he don't want me?".

That rerun came on last week and I damn near cried AGAIN. Every time I see it, it gets to me. Another one that gets me is the final episode, when Uncle Phil said to Will, "You are my son. Bottom line."

 

The Home Improvement when Jill's dad dies. The part when Tim had to tell her was pretty sad because everyone knew but her.

[Guest Polish_Rifle]

The final episode of Three's Company, when Jack gets married and Janet and Terry move out of the building.

 

That show kicked some major ass.

[Betty Houle 0]

The final episode of Three's Company, when Jack gets married and Janet and Terry move out of the building.

 

That show kicked some major ass.

Janet is the one who got married; not Jack. He just moved in with his girlfriend, paving the way for THREE'S A CROWD!

[Guest notJames]

If I can go old school for a minute:

 

One of the season finale's for "Good Times". Father James was out of town getting a better job. The family was going to be getting out of the ghetto. They're having a celebration with all the family and friends. Then they receive word that James had been killed in a car accident. Quite the swerve back in the day.

Good call. That show was full of moments like that, like the episode where JJ's girlfriend is revealed to be a heroin addict, or when Penny was beaten by her mother before Wilona adopts her. Norman Fell was a god.

 

The Wonder Years has so many sad episodes that I couldn't possibly remember them all. Any time that poignant 60s music came on, I'd get all weepy like a girl with a skinned knee and shit. Same with Family Ties. Lots of pathos for a comedy, no?

[Guest Si82]

Well I'll go with:

 

The last episode of Cheers. That really does choke me up.

 

The last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth which really drove home how mad some of the higher ups in the British Army were and how many senseless deaths occured.

 

And the final clip show of Seinfeld, the one before the last two parter with the montage of clips set to "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" by Green Day. That really gets to me. Although I did enjoy the last episode of Seinfeld, particually the reference to the first ever show right at the end, I didn't find it particually sad.

[Zorin Industries 0]

It's not a sitcom, but the end of Quantum Leap always gets me, just the fact that he never goes back home and keeps going and helping people.

[Guest Pegasus Kid]

I used to be a big fan of "Friends" and thought the Ross and Rachel break up episode was pretty sad. It had great pick ups like the ordering of the pizza and stuff like Ross literally on his knees clutching to Rachel for forgiveness tugs at the emotions too.

 

I'll second the Fresh Prince episode with Will's father.

[Guest Pigsy]

The scene in The Office where David Brent gets made redundant is pretty sad (and funny).

 

I used to be a fan of the Wonder Years, but for some reason (I forget why) I missed the last episode.... and I've never seen it. I'm still pissed off about that, actually.

[Guest The Hamburglar]

The scene in The Office where David Brent gets made redundant is pretty sad (and funny).

You from the UK, dude? The Office is sheer tragicomic genius, and that scene is really well acted. Brent's a complete tit but you can't help but feel sorry for the poor fucker. But really, the most horrifying Office scene has to be The Dance. It haunts the nightmares of the nation.

[Guest Vyce]

Well, not being British or well-knowledged in British TV, you can't leave me hanging like that.

 

What's so bad about "The Dance"?

[Guest Pigsy]

I can't really do it justice by describing it, so I'll just link to a clip of David Brent "fusing Flash dance with MC Hammer shit" here

 

BTW, I am from the UK.

[Guest Jericholic82]

you also gotta love the last scene of the last ep of fresh pronce when carlton is in the bathroom and will turns off the light and leaves carlton screams hey wo turned out the light, a fitting end to the show, as carlton gets the last laugh.

 

i know this is the saddest moment thread but thought id lighten up everyones sadness

 

zack ur right about the oil spill on sbtb, another sad moment is when zacks indian friend dies after teaching him so much. i never saw zack in that state of emotion before.